1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to computer memory and, more particularly, to memory methods and systems which are platform-independent.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order for computer systems to communicate with the user, the systems usually include a number of peripheral devices such as display screen, printers, and keyboards. Each of these peripheral devices requires a special software component, called a device driver, to provide for orderly exchange of data between the peripheral device and the rest of the computer system.
A company developing, for example, a new color printer would like to insure that the printer will be usable with computers having different hardware configurations (xe2x80x9cplatformsxe2x80x9d), including systems based upon the most popular types of central processing units, such as the SPARC manufactured by Sun Microsystems, the PowerPC manufactured by the Motorola Corporation, and the Pentium manufactured by Intel Corporation. Currently, this requires that the printer manufacturer write a separate device driver for each platform, thereby driving up the development cost of the printer. Moreover, the need for custom device drivers for each platform also means that when a new platform is introduced, device drivers may not be immediately available for the most popular types of peripheral devices.
The need for custom device drivers for each platform is closely related to the varying memory characteristics of each platform. It would be desirable to provide memory systems and methods which would permit a single device driver to be written for a peripheral device, thereby allowing operation of the peripheral device on all platforms, including new platforms to be introduced in the future.
Features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof, as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages, and in accordance with the purpose of the invention as embodied and broadly described, the invention provides a method for providing memory functionality to object-oriented client software components of a computer system having a CPU. The method comprising the steps of providing a first set of memory classes, each class of the first set being platform-independent; providing a second set of memory classes, each class of the second set being a subclass of a class of the first set and being platform-dependent; and performing client component memory functions by accessing only objects of classes of the first set.
In another aspect, the invention includes apparatus for performing memory functions in an object-oriented computer system, comprising a first set of memory classes, each class of the first set being platform-independent; a second set of memory classes, each class of the second set being a subclass of a class of the first set and being platform-dependent; a device driver accessing only objects of classes of the first set; and a bus manager accessing classes of the second set.
In yet another aspect, the invention includes a computer-readable medium containing instructions for providing memory functionality to object-oriented client software components of a computer system having a CPU. The instructions comprise a first set of memory classes, each class of the first set being platform-independent; and a second set of memory classes, each class of the second set being a subclass of a class of the first set and being platform-dependent.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one/several embodiment(s) of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.